Movement Assessments

Movement Assessments are a part of our Coaching packages. Assessments identify altered movement patterns that may increase your risk of injury. If you’ve ever experienced pain, injury, or stress during your lifetime, it has influenced the way that you move. Your nervous system will automatically alter the way you move when it feels a need to protect something. It may limit the use of your hip muscles to create a limp after an ankle sprain, or tighten the muscles around your shoulder blade to help you hold your arm close to your side after a shoulder injury.

These altered movement patterns are meant for temporary protection, but they do not always return to normal after the injury has healed or the event has passed. Your ankle and shoulder have healed, but you still may not use your hip or shoulder blade muscles well. Over time, movement patterns that were meant to be a temporary detour become your nervous system’s primary way of operating. And typically we aren’t aware of the changes.

Altered movement patterns are often inefficient and suboptimal. They require some muscles and joints to overwork and for others to become less active and to tighten. This can impact overall strength, mobility, coordination, and increase the risk of injury. Performing a Movement Assessment helps to identify these areas and learn exercises and techniques to address them to restore normal movement patterns.